Taos, New Mexico’s 2nd Poet Laureate featured at WNP
Author, editor, educator, and Taos, New Mexico’s 2nd Poet Laureate Catherine Strisik will be featured tonight at Wednesday Night Poetry at Kollective Coffee+Tea, 110 Central Ave.
The regular open mic session for all poets, musicians, and storytellers will begin at 6:30 p.m. Strisik will begin her feature set at 7:15 p.m., followed by another round of open mic. Admission is free and open to all ages.
Born in Haverhill, Massachusetts, into a Greek and Polish immigrant family, and raised in Rockport, Massachusetts, where she lived and graduated high school in 1976, Strisik moved to Taos, New Mexico, in 1983, where she has lived close to 40 years.
“I’m a perpetual student! I graduated from University of Hartford, 1980 where I received my B.S. in Special Education, then went on to study at University of North Carolina- Greensboro, rerouting life to Taos, New Mexico. in 1983 from where I furthered my education, completing through the Multisensory Language Institute of NM two years of training as a Dyslexia Language Therapist, teaching privately and in Taos schools for over 35 years children with dyslexia. I also completed my training in Teaching English as a Second Language Internationally. I’m a Graduate Gemologist through Gemological Institute of America, and a Licensed Massage Therapist through Scherer Institute of Massage. My true passion, however, is poetry, in which I incorporate all of life’s learnings,” Strisik said in a news release.
Selected as Taos, New Mexico’s Poet Laureate 2020-2021, Strisik has a long and impressive career in poetry, winning numerous awards including the 2020 Taoseña Award as a Woman of Impact based on literary contribution, and gaining attention and support through her project, Poetry in Nature, which was embraced by the community with the installation of poems from poets from all over North America in various locations in Taos County, the release said.
“I’ve received grants, honors and prizes from Cutthroat, Peregrine, and Comstock Review, The Southwest Literary Center, The Puffin Foundation, as well as residencies at Lakkos Artists, Crete, Vermont Studio Center, Truchas Peaks Place amongst others. Always with a love for travel and poetry, in 2012 I cofounded and edited the internationally acclaimed online journal, Taos Journal of International Poetry & Art in order to bring together the voices of poets from around the globe, and am currently on advisory board of Pocket Samovar. I also owned and managed San Cristobal Writers Retreat for writers who desired a place of solitary and peace to work. I offer editorial services, private consultations, and small group poetry workshops as well,” she said.
Strisik is author of “Insectum Gravitis” (finalist New Mexico/ AZ Book Award in Poetry 2020); “The Mistress” (awarded New Mexico/AZ Book Award for Poetry 2017); “Thousand-Cricket Song,” and manuscripts “And They Saw Me Turn To Hear Them” (semifinalist, Philip Levine Prize in Poetry, 2021), and “Dear Unholy.”
“I first wrote lines of poetry while in junior high school, read Chaucer and Beowulf, Emerson, Whitman, Millay, but it was my late 20s when an already published poet friend ‘discovered’ my poetry within the hundreds of pages of writings that we shared, encouraged me to attend Community of Writers, and from there my passion, need, and growth as a poet expanded. For me, the unexpected stimulates my poetic voice, such as recently, a heron silently lifting off from the mud flats in a river I spent the winter living along. My poetry is sensuous and fearless, writing about the body, spirit, soul within natural environments,” Strisik said.
“I discovered Wednesday Night Poetry during the first year of global pandemic and isolation when I saw a couple of Facebook friends reading their poetry and acknowledging Kai and WNP, and thought, ‘Wow, this is very cool!’ So, I bravely and shyly made a video of myself reading a poem, then sent it off to Kai, entering what was a new world for me and in what was becoming a new world. I hold deep appreciation for this community, for WNP bringing in the hearts of others, the poetry of others who I may never have experienced if not for this space.”
“It is a thrill for me that so many incredibly talented poets who have only participated in the virtual realm of Wednesday Night Poetry are physically making the sojourn to Hot Springs to feature in person! As the Taos Poet Laureate, Catherine
is a compelling and evocative poet, with arresting language and deeply powerful poetry. I can’t wait to welcome her to our community, live, and especially during such a beautiful time for our city with Arts & The Park in full swing and the astonishingly talented Danaé Brissonnet painting the mural on Kollective’s wall outside. What a beautiful week this will be,” WNP Host Kai Coggin said in the release.
This week marks 1,736 consecutive Wednesdays of open mic poetry in downtown Hot Springs since Feb. 1, 1989. “WNP is the longest running consecutive weekly open mic series in the country, now recently in partnership with Arkansas Learning Through the Arts, to share in the mission to spread arts awareness in our local community. WNP is proud of to be a community-sponsored event for Arts & The Park 2022,” the release said. Email wednesdaynightpoetry@ gmail.com for more information.